


Watching

by dormiensa



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Episode: s04e03 The Final Problem, Fix-It, Gen, Holmes Brothers, Hurt/Comfort, Season/Series 04
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-09-19 07:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9425111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dormiensa/pseuds/dormiensa
Summary: Sherlock parents Mummy and Father and comforts his brother.





	

After Mummy huffed out of Mycroft’s office, with Father close behind, Sherlock raised his head and saw his brother slumped in his chair, bowed head in hands. He hesitated a moment, then walked over, gave Mycroft’s shoulder a gentle squeeze, and informed in a low tone that he’d see their parents home.

Mummy was startled at Sherlock’s announcement but gratefully clung to his arm as they walked out to the waiting car. Before climbing in, Sherlock caught Andrea’s attention and motioned that she should check on his brother. She nodded.

Mummy continued to vent her anger throughout the ride back to the Dower House. Father tried, unsuccessfully, to calm her down, only managing to make her rescind her threat to excommunicate Mycroft. Sherlock ignored them.

When they arrived home, Sherlock allowed them to settle into the sitting room with a tea “to calm the nerves” before beginning his tirade.

He reminded them that Eurus had been taken away because she had _murdered_ Victor. John had discovered his bones at the bottom of the well after he, too, was trapped down there to be drowned.

Sherlock then spared them no mercy by describing the ordeal that he, Mycroft, and John endured at Sherrinford. How she had hustled them from prison cell to prison cell like lab rats. How she had made him phone Molly. How, finally, she had forced him to choose between Mycroft and John. 

He then pointed out how Mycroft had bravely shouldered the responsibility of caring for both his siblings. How he’d brought gifts to Eurus and kept her updated about the family, especially Sherlock’s goings-on—it was how she knew about Molly and John… and Moriarty. 

He reminded them that he would not still be alive to point out their deficiencies if Mycroft had not forced him into rehab all those years ago and more recently helped him fake his death. Oh, incidentally, did they know that Eurus had helped Moriarty in his plan to take down “the Holmes boys”? Oh yes. For her Christmas present five years ago, she manipulated Mycroft into allowing her five minutes of unsupervised time with the consulting criminal. 

And the end result was three years of exile to dismantle Moriarty’s network. But that was still not enough. No, John and Mary had derailed Eurus’ master plan. She must have hoped the information that his friends would be killed unless he jumped would trigger a memory about Victor and eventually cause him to remember _her_. And when that didn’t happen, she made it seem as if Moriarty was back. She even escaped from Sherrinford to ensure she could inevitably play judge at the trial for their lives. John had been having nightmares of late, wherein he was forced by Eurus to choose between Sherlock and Rosie. And inexplicably, Rosie was always in a blue dress and pigtails. Not until they recalled the nasty prank they’d played on Mycroft to force him to reveal the truth about her did John remember that, after being paralyzed by the dart Eurus had shot at him, she had told him in his semi-conscious state that she’d been wearing a blue dress and pigtails the day that they’d taken her away.

Mummy was crying by this time, but Sherlock was not finished. Mycroft had always protected him and rarely used his past against him… unless provoked, which Sherlock admitted he’d done countless times. By contrast, Eurus manipulated him into having that dreadful conversation with Molly for which he wasn’t sure she’d ever forgive him. He made it clear that if they chose to disown Mycroft, they would end up with no children. 

At this, Mummy fired up, but Sherlock cut her short. She had had her say. And until she could think and act like a rational human being, this was goodbye. As a final Parthian shot before slamming the door, he told her he hated that he’d inherited her wealth of erratic emotions and wished he’d paid more attention when Mycroft tried to teach him to control them.

Sherlock climbed into the awaiting car and told the driver to bring him to the Diogenes.

He found his brother nursing a brandy in the reading room. Mycroft grudgingly agreed to retire to his den. He then sat in stunned silence, eyes wide and finally slack-jawed, as Sherlock briefly recounted his tale of scolding. 

Sherlock paused to allow Mycroft to recover and then murmured, “You’d said that my whole life has been shaped by my sister. But that’s true of you as well. The Iceman. The ‘caring is not an advantage’: it was as much a lesson to me as a reminder to yourself. Eurus must’ve been so pleased to see you becoming more emotionally unavailable like her. And she must’ve taunted you whenever you showed weakness, especially about me.” He held Mycroft’s gaze. “I’m sorry I’ve caused you grief. I realize now how difficult it must have been to care for two such volatile siblings.”

Mycroft’s eyes glistened and his lips trembled. Sherlock knelt before his chair and held him close when his brother finally collapsed in heaving sobs.

**Author's Note:**

> Despite the batshit crazy "logic" of Series 4, I didn't hate it overall. What really irked me the most, though, was the parental gang-up on Mycroft. I get that they felt betrayed, but really, that scene did not sit well with me. This is my attempt to make the parents less monstrous. And to comfort Mycroft, of course. Lessons learned, brother mine.


End file.
